Eight Apps in Germany's App Store Say They Trade on Polymarket

Polymarket lists Germany as close-only on its website and its API: users can close positions but cannot open new ones. On 27 October 2026 we asked Polymarket's own location check from eight German home connections on Telekom, Vodafone, 1&1 and O2. Seven answered, and all seven said the connection is blocked for new orders. The eighth gave no valid answer. A request from a Frankfurt datacenter got the same answer. Polymarket's own app is not listed in the German App Store.

The same store lists other apps that say they do what Polymarket's website will not. On the same day we read the German-storefront listings of 78 apps that name Polymarket, Kalshi or prediction markets. Eight of them say that users can trade on Polymarket markets, most with money paid in by Apple Pay, card or SEPA transfer. Two describe themselves as official Polymarket partners. Two are written in German: one says "Wette auf Polymarket-Märkte zu Sport, Politik, Krypto", and the other is called "Dibs - Smarter wetten mit KI".

Polymarket's developer documentation tells such apps what to do: "Before placing orders, builders should verify the location." We did not install or use any of the apps and opened no account, so we cannot say whether they apply Polymarket's German restriction. What the listings do show is that the offer is made to users of the German store, in two cases in German.

Germany's gambling regulator, the GGL, told Vultax on 7 October that Polymarket had put geoblocking in place for Germany and that prohibition orders and payment blocking had not been necessary so far. Our tests find that block holding on Polymarket's own site. The apps are a separate route to the same markets, and whether that route is closed to users in Germany depends on each app.

Each row quotes or closely follows the listing as Apple showed it in the German storefront on 27 October 2026. The seller is the name Apple displays. We did not check who is behind it, or whether a partner claim is current.

We also checked sites that other European regulators have already blocked, and five crypto prediction markets that appear on no blocklist we hold. Most of them load from German home networks. A page that loads is not proof that a German user can trade, so we also read each site's own terms.

Two sets of terms stand out. predict.fun and Opinion both list the countries whose residents may not trade, including France and Poland, and neither names Germany. Limitless excludes places where its use is prohibited by law without naming any. Insight Prediction, which is on Poland's register of blocked domains, excludes sanctioned countries and trading from the United States, but not Germany. SX Bet's terms do name Germany among the excluded countries.

ADI PredictStreet, which is on Switzerland's blocklist, loads from Germany and its terms name no excluded country. Trade press reported in June 2026 that it blocked users in Germany after the GGL acted against it.

These are observations of what is offered, not of who uses it.

• Whether any of the eight apps lets a user in Germany place an order. We did not install them, and they may check location as Polymarket's documentation asks.
• Who is behind each seller name, or whether a partner claim is current.
• How much money from Germany reaches Polymarket through these apps or sites.
• Apps in Google Play, which we did not check.
• Whether any app or site breaks German law. That is for the GGL and the courts.

The Polymarket check follows a method we fixed on 25 October 2026, before its first counted run. This was counted run 1. The apps and the other sites follow a supplement fixed on 27 October 2026, before its first observation. Requests from German home networks went through Globalping, a public network of volunteer probes. Each run is saved in dated files with SHA-256 hashes.

We used no account, wallet, VPN or proxy, placed no order and passed no bot check. No IP address was stored. The run files, their hashes and both method texts are available on request. Polymarket's restrictions in the rest of Europe are in the Europe record.